A Sumter County Sheriff’s detective was fired and arrested Thursday after she allegedly abused powerful law enforcement databases to secretly spy on her husband’s ex-wife.
Detective Brandy Almany, who had been employed with the agency since 2019, was taken into custody after an internal audit uncovered a trail of irregular searches tied to her accounts.
According to Sumter County Sheriff Pat Breeden, Almany circumvented strict departmental procedures to access multiple restricted databases — including the Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID), the Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS) and the Flock Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system — all to monitor and gather information on an ex-wife of her husband.
To cover her tracks, Almany allegedly created official electronic records using unrelated sheriff’s office case numbers, falsely claiming the searches were part of legitimate criminal investigations when they were purely for personal reasons.
“As your sheriff, I’ve promised accountability and transparency. Today, I had to arrest one of my own for misuse of multiple law enforcement databases,” Breeden said in a statement. “It is difficult to express my extreme disappointment in the actions this detective chose to take.”
Upon the discovery of the searches, Almany was interviewed, immediately suspended and stripped of her badge.
The investigation was turned over to the State Attorney’s Office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which issued a warrant Thursday for Almany’s arrest. She is facing four felony charges:
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Official Misconduct: For knowingly falsifying electronic records with fake investigative justifications to obtain a benefit for another person.
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Offenses Against Computer Users (Three counts): For knowingly exceeding authorized access to the sheriff’s computer systems, the DAVID system to obtain confidential driver and address information, and the CCIS system to obtain court records for personal purposes.
Almany was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center, where she was being held on $12,500 bond. Upon her arrest, she was officially terminated from the agency.
Breeden noted that the sheriff’s office is still awaiting audit results from various state law enforcement databases, which could result in additional charges for the disgraced detective.
In the wake of the scandal, Breeden ordered a complete internal audit of all database usage within the agency and temporarily suspended the department’s use of the Flock license plate reader system.
“I assured you I would not tolerate behavior that does not align with our standards of professionalism and integrity, and as a direct result of her actions, this detective has been both terminated and arrested,” Breeden said.